Eric responded to my response on Thursday. I'm a little late in responding.

Based on his response, I'm happy to call Eric my friend. That is a major positive.

While I appreciate what Brueggemann is trying to get at, I don't think it's fair. I think it's reasonable to come to a coherent understanding of faith and Scripture without being 'selective fundamentalists'. We may disagree here. It requires some work. It's not always obvious. And, frankly, I don't think many in the church have stumbled across it. But I think it's good and possible. (And I could list a lot of scholars in this camp, if anyone was interested.)

Eric is right. Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality. But Paul did. And I think it's all fairly consistent.

Eric defines two categories of immorality: dishonesty and damage. Sounds like a pretty good definition. My read of the Scriptural position is that sexuality outside of loving (heterosexual) marriage is damaging to both 'consenting adults'. Again, we may disagree here.

Thank you, Eric, for this respectful dialogue. I appreciate it. It has been enriching for me, and I hope for others, too.

sincerely,

Sean